Chances and Choices
by Queen-Deb24
Summary: I would have done anything to give you a second chance.


_**Hi :) **_

_**It's been a while but I still very much appreciate the PMs I still get and reviews on the other stories**_

_**After this week's H&A, I couldn't help myself :)**_

_**This is my tweaked version.**_

_**Thank-you and I hope you enjoy.**_

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Bang!

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Bang!

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After the second shot, Brax was literally numb.

He couldn't feel.

Couldn't hear anything except for what could only be echoes of two gun shots.

His eyes couldn't even focus properly and he was soon pulled into a world of black.

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"Wake up!"

Brax heard the voice and opened his eyes but the sight that greeted shocked him.

The picturesque scene in front of him was beautiful; water, cliffs, rocks and quiet. He felt calm and surprisingly pain free, his hand lifted his shirt from his stomach and ran across unblemished skin.

He turned from the view hoping to a clue telling him where he was when his world was shaken to the core.

"Wh- Why are you here?" Brax breathed.

At that moment his heart actually hurt. She was even more beautiful than he remembered. More stunning than he could have ever imagined.

She was here, real. In front of him.

Charlie!

Brax could feel his eyes sting as they took in the figure of the woman standing in front of him. The woman he thought he'd never see again.

"I've missed you." Charlie smiled slightly, almost shyly and Brax wanted nothing more than to sweep her into his arms and hold her forever.

"Charlie?" Brax breathed.

She didn't move or speak as if giving him time to process her sudden appearance.

"I've missed you so much, Charlie!" Brax breathed again. He was fighting for restraint. On the outside he appeared calm and collected on the inside his heart pounded.

Brax took a step forward slowly. He was terrified that at any second he would wake or worse Charlie would disappear.

Was this a dream?

She didn't move and it was if she understood his fears.

Brax took another step and again, nothing changed. In two more steps they were toe to toe. Charlie had still yet to make another move or sound and Brax easily wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into his embrace not giving her the chance to leave him.

"What is this place?"

"It doesn't matter," Charlie replied vaguely holding on to him tightly.

"Am I...?"

"No," Charlie answered, her hold tightening across Brax's shoulders.

He revelled in the feeling and then pulled away quickly, his hands

"I can feel you," Brax exclaimed.

"I think this is the first time you have ever complained," Charlie teased slightly.

"Your hands, you're warm," Brax ran his hands down Charlie's bare arms. "Do you have any idea how long I have waited for this?"

"Yeah, I do. It's been that long for me too."

Brax pulled her to him again.

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"What am I doing here?" Brax asked.

"I think you know."

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"You want me to go?"

It seemed like hours had passed but Brax didn't care. They had stood together holding each other until Charlie had leaned back and looked at her former lover.

"It's not about what I want, Brax." Charlie answered sitting down.

They sat together on the cliff top; Charlie was cradled in between Brax's legs, her back to his front.

"Really? What's it about then?"

"What you want."

"What I want, I can't have," Brax stated clearly.

"Yes you can."

"Really? I doubt that Charlie."

"What you want Brax is what everyone wants."

"Oh yeah, and that is?"

"Love."

Brax scoffed. "Maybe but that's second. What I want is first and foremost is you. That hasn't changed," Brax answered honestly leaning forward to kiss Charlie gently on the cheek; his lips tingled slightly at the contact.

"I'm _who_ you want not necessarily _what _you want."

"You telling me I can't have my cake and eat it too, huh?"

"You had both for a little while if my memory serves me correctly."

"Not long enough, nowhere near long enough. You shouldn't have been taken from me Charlie."

"I agree, completely."

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Charlie hadn't pushed for more conversation and after a while Brax felt the need to continue.

"I don't want to fight anymore, Charlie. If I go back, I'm gonna have to fight. I just... I don't have it in me anymore."

"I'm so proud of you."

"How? I spend so much time fighting for something and I get nothing out of it. Things don't get better. I lost you! I constantly screw up! Things never get better. Everything has been such a... fight. The thing is, being here with you now; I don't feel any of that."

Charlie shifted to the side slightly and their eyes met.

"You know some days I think I'm alright. I wake up and for a bit it feels like I'll be okay and then, all of a sudden there's a pain in my gut reminding me that I literally lost my whole world."

Charlie closed her eyes at the words.

"So why would I ever go back?" Brax finished as he gently wiped a tear from Charlie's cheek.

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More hours had passed.

"How long are you going to keep doing this for?" Charlie asked.

"As long as it takes."

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"You can't give up, Brax."

"Who says I'm giving up?"

"They need you. Heath, Casey and Kyle, Who'd have guessed there'd be another Braxton around," Charlie said softly.

"I'm still the cutest."

"I don't doubt that," Charlie smiled.

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"They'll be okay. They're big boys,"

"Who are you trying to convince? You're just going to leave them without saying goodbye. You know that would leave Heath the eldest, right? The decision maker of the family."

"They don't need me, Charlie."

"But do you need them? You'd be so lost without them."

Brax shrugged.

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"Are you sure you're ready to do this?" Charlie asked softly.

"With you, yes."

"I know you don't like unfinished business."

"What makes you think I've got unfinished business?

"Because you haven't even mentioned Ricky."

"Don't do this Charlie."

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"I know what it's been like for you, Brax."

"No. No you really don't Charlie."

"Yes I do. I've watched you and been with you through everything. Do you know if it wasn't for her, you'd have been gone months ago."

"Would have been her fault. She almost destroyed my family. My family!"

"And what stopped her? You! She loves you. She sacrificed herself for you." Charlie spoke gently but Brax could hear her voice waver slightly and it broke him.

"Yeah, ok. And? What am I supposed to do with that, Charlie? Forgive her?"

"Do you think you should?"

"Alright fine, let's say I forgive her. What do I tell the boys?"

"Have I missed the chapter of your life where you start explaining yourself to them?" Charlie deadpanned and Brax was modest enough to break eye contact with a shake of his head.

"I don't ever remember Heath being my fan and that never stopped you."

"You are in a league of your own you know that?"

"_Was_. I _was_ in a league of my own. Not anymore.

"To me there's no difference," Brax said.

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"Brax what is holding you back? Why can't you forgive her?" Charlie asked. When Brax's eyes found hers again he could see the tears building.

"Charlie it's not a matter of forgiving her."

"Brax?"

"It would mean losing you again. I can't do that!"

Charlie could do nothing to stop the tears from slipping down her face and she found herself being pulled into the warmest arms she had ever known.

"Charlie I don't want to leave you," Brax breathed into her neck.

"You're not leaving me. Not really."

"Yeah I am, I could stay with you. You could have chosen to stay with me."

Charlie chuckled slightly and Brax could hear the sadness in her tone. "I never got a choice, Brax. I never got the chance to stay with you."

"Then why am I being given a choice?"

"Because you're being given a second chance."

"I would have done anything to give you a second chance."

"I know you would have, and I love you all the more for it."

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"What would you have chosen?"

"Did you really just ask me that?" Charlie asked.

"Just needed the reassurance I guess.

"You need no such thing."

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Brax and Charlie sat on the cliff top in each other's arms.

"I could stay here with you forever, you know. Watch the sunset with you in my arms," Brax told Charlie.

"If you're waiting for the sun to set, you'll be waiting a while."

"How am I supposed to leave you like this?" Brax whispered pulling Charlie up into his arms.

"I'm not alone."

Brax was about to ask for a clarification but so quickly he nearly missed it, a small boy peeked out from behind Charlie's legs and disappeared again.

It was only for a second but Brax could have sworn the dark brown eyes peering out from behind Charlie were a mirror image of his younger brother's. Then it hit him.

"Wait! Is that...?"

"What a cutie, right?" Charlie smiled.

"Is that really...?" Brax struggled to find the words.

"Heath asked me to look after him."

"You've seen Heath?"

"Seen Heath? No. Heath came to see me, see where I ..." Charlie let the sentence linger but she didn't need to finish and Brax didn't need the reminder that somewhere in Summer Bay stood a gravestone with Charlie's name.

"He never told me."

"I didn't think he would have."

"And you said Heath wasn't a fan of yours."

"I don't think he had many options to be completely honest."

"It would have been hard for him."

"To be completely honest it was hard to hear. But like I said, I'm not alone. You don't have to worry about me."

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"You were everything to me Charlie."

"If I thought it was the right thing and that you wouldn't regret your decision, even for a second. I'd keep you with me and I wouldn't let you go," Charlie confided kissing Brax's hand gently.

"You choosing to go back is not a reflection of your love for me."

"It feels like it is," Brax's admission hurt to say.

"I love you, Brax. I love you now, I loved you then and tomorrow when you're recovering in your hospital bed, I'll still love you."

"Yeah but you're here with me now, you weren't yesterday and you might tomorrow, am I supposed to really leave you?"

"You aren't leaving me that not what this is."

"What it _this_ Charlie?"

"This is me loving you with everything I have and being here for you when you need me."

"Charlie you don't understand. You are the love of my life. Loving you wasn't hard, it was easy. You were _everything _to me Charlie. I was going to spend the rest of my life with you."

"I know. You were everything to me too and I wish we got that chance but we didn't but you still might. I want you to be happy Brax."

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"Do you know what's going to happen?"

"No, you haven't made up your mind yet."

"But when I do make up my mind, you'll know?"

"Yeah, we're connected in a way I guess."

Brax looked down and watched Charlie's slim fingers against his larger hands.

"_Friend of my heart_. All of the pain that we went through was worth it because there was a time, it doesn't matter how small, but there was a time when I was completely happy. There was a time where I was loved unconditionally and loved unconditionally. Some people don't get that chance, Brax. You made me so happy."

"I still love you, Charlie."

"I know you do, and I still love you so much."

In some strange way Brax knew that he didn't have much time remaining and there was one thing that he needed more than anything else."

"Can I... Am I allowed...?" Brax pulled Charlie closer toward him.

"_Allowed_? Brax I've been waiting for this all day," Charlie replied, the same look appearing in her eyes as it had so many times before, she too knew their time was coming to an end.

"Should I feel used?" Brax teased.

"Kiss me, please."

The feeling of Charlie's lips meeting his was unlike anything he had every felt.

"I love you, Brax," Charlie breathed, her forehead meeting his, their breaths mingled gently in what they both knew were their final seconds together.

"I love you, Charlie." Brax replied pulling her back towards him.

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"Charlie," Brax moaned.

"He's awake!" Heath yelled into the stale silent hospital room.

"Did he just say...?" Casey asked stunned.

"I'll get a doctor," Kyle was out the door before Casey or Heath could reply.

"Did he just say what I think he just said?" Casey tried again.

"Yeah, I think he did," Heath answered.

"I'll go see what's taking so long," Casey was out the door too even though not even a minute had passed since Kyle had left.

"Thanks Buckton!" Heath whispered quietly as his older brother opened his eyes.

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_**Thanks for reading :) **_

_**Thanks in advance for reviewing :)**_

_**xoxox**_


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